Who Invented Peanuts?
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WHO INVENTED PEANUTS ?
- European explorers first discovered peanuts in Brazil. Peanuts were grown as far north as Mexico when the Spanish began their exploration of the new world.
- The explorers took peanuts back to Spain, and from there, traders and explorers spread them to Asia and Africa.
- Africans were the first people to introduce peanuts to North America beginning in the 1700s.
- Records show that it wasn’t until the early 1800s that peanuts were grown as a commercial crop in the U.S.
- They were first grown in Virginia and used mainly for oil, food and as a cocoa substitute.
- At this time, peanuts were regarded as a food for livestock and the poor and were considered difficult to grow and harvest.
- Peanut production steadily grew in the first half of the nineteenth century.
- Peanuts became prominent after the Civil War when Union soldiers found they liked them and took them home. Both armies subsisted on this food source high in protein.
- Their popularity grew in the late 1800s when PT Barnum’s circus wagons traveled across the country and vendors called “hot roasted peanuts!” to the crowds.
- Soon street vendors began selling roasted peanuts from carts and peanuts also became popular at baseball games.
- While peanut production rose during this time, peanuts were still harvested by hand , leaving stems and trash in the peanuts.
- Thus, poor quality and lack of uniformity kept down the demand for peanuts.
- Around 1900, labor-saving equipment was invented for planting, cultivating, harvesting and picking peanuts from the plants, as well as for shelling and cleaning the kernels.
- With these significant mechanical aids, demand for peanuts grew rapidly, especially for oil, roasted and salted nuts, peanut butter and candy.
- In the early 1900s peanuts became a significant agricultural crop when the boll weevil threatened the South’s cotton crop.
- People following the suggestions of noted scientist Dr. George Washington Carver, to peanuts served as an effective commercial crop and, for a time, rivaled the position of cotton in the South.